Archive for the ‘Interface’ Category

This post is in regards to adding an ESATA card to a MacPro. You’re probably thinking, why add an ESATA card when you have 2 SATA ports that can be converted to ESATA with a simple cable. The SATA ports onboard are only supported in AHCI mode. Whenever you boot into Linux or Windows you’re automatically put into legacy mode which does not see the extra ports aka your drives.
My best candidate for an ESATA card was the Adaptec 1225SA. This card has support for Linux RPMS and Windows drivers out the wazoo. (I’m not a fan a recompiling the kernel for drivers that should already be there and I like the official support) However, Adaptec has no support for MacOS.
I received a 1225SA revision 3 which had a Silicon Image chipset and a Silicon Storage Technology chip.

The chipsets were:

Silicon Image
SII3132CNU
QN4863.1-17
0725
AD02CX2

Silicon Storage Technology
39VF040
70-4C-NHE
0721003-K

The highest drivers that are supported from the Silicon Image website are 10.5.1…Boo! I installed several variants, but alas it was for naught. My search continues….

If you use the extra SATA ports on the motherboard (located near the fan) and have a dual/triple/etc boot with another OS, the additional OS’s will not recognize the drives. The Apple EFI BIOS will automatically set the other OS’s to go into Legacy mode instead of AHCI. You can use a grub bootloader to tweak the settings for Windows/Linux and trick it into going to AHCI mode, but then you will have to reinstall the OS with a driver disk (along with Intel AHCI drivers…See “RAID” drivers on Intel’s website).

If you use the extra ports for an Optical drive (Blueray), then be aware utilities like Toast will not work with Blueray. Roxio Toast does not recognize SATA buses in viewing Blueray and there are reported problems with burning (Of course Windows won’t see the drive at all). If you want Blueray for burning/viewing get a drive that’s EIDE/IDE/PATA or buy an IDE/SATA converter. If you use the SATA ports for extra drives only seen by Apple (ESATA), then everything should work fine. I’m testing a LG GGW-H20L Blueray/HD-DVD/DVD/Lightscribe (SATA drive) player now. I’ve ordered a SATA/IDE from http://www.cooldrives.com/sahadradtoid.html since it seems to fit inside of the MacPro’s confined space. I’ll let you know how it turns out.

P.S.

I’m not 100% sure that Fusion or Parallels will see the ESATA drives.

*** Update ***
I received the IDE/SATA converter. It’s an easy install *IF* you’re planning on only 1 drive in the bay. If you have two drives, get a power splitter or an short 3 inch power extender cable. Then try to work that blasted thing in. You’ll know what I mean when you try it. Geez.
Anyway, everything seems to work in Windows and the Mac side now. I even ran a firmware update on the drive from inside Windows Vista64.

I have a few choice words about Canon and their support for Mac, which I shouldn’t say on a public blog….Grr..

Download the latest driver from Canon
Ignore the install file, it doesn’t work. (Try it anyway)
Open up and mount the dmg file.
(if you don’t have Photoshop, then ignore the instructions for the next two lines)
Copy the files located in “Into Plug-in” to “/Applications/Adobe Photoshop CS2/Plug-Ins/Import/Export”
Verify the files have the correct permissions
Copy the files located in “Into Lib_CFMSupport” to “/Library/CFMSupport/”
Verify the files have the correct permissions.
Done